CNN interview: Amy Siskind attempts to educate; Ms. Mag editor uses airtime as commercial

Watch the video here. Listen to The New Agenda's executive director Amy Siskind succeed as she raises pertinent, relatively mild objections, to the Ms. Magazine cover for its special inauguration issue.  Then listen to Ms. Magazine's executive editor Katherine Spillar as she first a) dodges the issue, which is not whether men can be feminists, but whether there is any basis for referring to this man, President-elect Obama, as "what a feminist looks like" and then b) tells people to read the magazine so as to understand the cover (read = buy the magazine) and then c) evidently indicated to the CNN anchors that subscriptions to the magazine are up because of the inauguration cover, and thus the cover was a good idea.

Successful covers do not require a magazine to explain or justify their meaning. For example, most thoughtful criticisms of The New Yorker's satirical cover of the Obamas faulted the cover for being failed satire: for its failure to broadcast its satire and thus its potential to be taken too seriously. In other words, that cover, in many people's opinion, failed on its own terms. Similarly the Ms. Magazine cover fails on it own terms. The intention was not to satirize the claim that Barack Obama, who has not one achievement in public life that can be considered as his own contribution to advancing feminism, is the paradigm of a feminist. No, the intention was tell us just what the cover said: that Barack Obama is a feminist, indeed a heroic - if closeted - one (note it is only his undershirt that reveals the truth of his feminism). If the intention was to say that men can be feminists, they should have put Bill Clinton, who put his career on hold to assist his wife achieve greatness in hers, on the cover. Or they could have put Terry McAuliffe on the cover, for his unwavering devotion to a candidate who happened to be female but who also had a record of standing by the once-core Democratic Party principles that have, in the past, made many of us proud to be Democrats. No way was Ms. Magazine's intent  to suggest that men can be feminists, a point that anybody who has given two thoughts to feminism gets.

Apart from an intent to laud and fuss over President-elect Obama, the intent of the Ms. Magazine cover is the intent of most magazines: to sell the merchandise.  Fair enough, some will say. What's wrong with trying to sell the merch? Generally, in the case of magazines not much. But Ms. Magazine was founded to lead a cause. If it simply wants to bump up subscriptions - assuming there's enough data in yet to support the claim that the current cover does that - then Ms. Magazine should, straightaway, start with centerfolds labeling whoever is trendy at the moment as a stealth feminist. For those with more salable physiques, have them pull the over-clothes apart a little more widely; or maybe pose them with the slogan on the back of their panties, briefs or boxers, and wearing nothing else. They can shyly peek over their shoulder, indicating that they themselves are as surprised as the rest of us that Ms. Magazine has singled them out as archetypical feminists.

In the CNN interview, Ms. Spillar says "some people" have "overreacted" to the cover. This sounds an awful lot like the sexist tropes used by the cover subject's language during the primary season, such as his imagery about Senator Clinton's "claws" and "fangs" coming out. Just who is Ms. Spillar calling "some people"? Women. You know, the people whose claws and fangs come out when they get periodically down.

Ms. Spillar, you are completely correct that a man can be feminist. And in your interview today you demonstrated the corollary, that a woman can be a misogynist, belittling the concerns of those who once depended on publications like Ms. Magazine to give voice - and the front cover - to matters central to equalizing opportunities for 51 percent of this country's population.

Comments

[vb]

Touche, Heidi, You really nailed this one, especially with that final zinger - Ms.Spillar's demonstration that a woman can be a misogynist. Speaking of which, need I mention Arianna Huffington and Maureen Dowd? Those two have bought their way into the good old boys media network by incessantly trashing any woman who dares set foot on the national political stage.

I'm appalled when I read of the invites Dowd has received during the run up to the inauguration. She's treated as if she's actually a journalist.

[Amy Siskind]

Wow - very powerful and well written Heidi. Bravo! Yes...sigh...women can be misogynists as easily and men can be feminists....

[Lisa]

I was laughing out loud when I read this! I was saying the EXACT SAME THING to someone yesterday: that they could have put Bill Clinton on the cover for furthering his wife's career and his staff choices as president, or they could have chosen Terry McAuliffe!

Tell it like it is Heidi- great article.

[mamabroad]

Touche!!!

[justamom]

If the cover increases sale for this edition, Ms. Mag should enjoy it while it lasts. True worth of a publication is the content and the integrity of people running it. With that said, let's see how long Ms. Mag can last and how much $$$$ it will drain it's backers and investors.

[mamabroad]

The New Agenda created a photo album on their facebook page to collect images of what a real feminist looks like. It would be cool to get a huge response and collection. Then we can send Ms Mag over there for ideas on their next cover! I'm going to put mine up. I'm definitely a feminist!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Agenda/58158409960

[mary]

Excellent response to the anaemic pseudo-feminist editor of a magazine that was once a battlecry for women's rights and has now been reduced to a public relations tool for selling the Obama brand to gain favors with Zeus knows what and whom. It sure won't get MS additional thinking women readers!

I sent MS a letter and asked them to remove me form their list and said that I fully expected that "Barack will occasionally feel down and start launching attacks against women's rights to boost His appeal"....And, then, watch our claws come out to scratch him off the ballots and force him, hopefully, to seek asylum back in the Chicago rat-sewers where he refined his political skills and tactics that spell hara-kiri for women's rights....

[truthisgold]

Brava Heidi once again, and Brava Amy! Until we can all speak out about the absence of clothes on the Emperor, misogyny, perpetrated by either gender, will continue, especially when masked behind the desire to exploit for financial gain. It is indeed a shame that people like Ms. Spillar are allowed to populate media.